The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has finally issued guidance on menu labeling requirements for retail chain operations and small breweries are likely to take a financial hit. The new menu labeling rules require restaurants and foodservice establishments with more than 20 locations to disclose the caloric value and supplementary health criteria of beer, as well as other food and drinks, sold on-premise and will take effect on Dec. 1, 2016.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s long-rumored takeover of SABMiller is underway. In a statement, the world’s largest beer company confirmed Wednesday that it had approached SABMiller, the world’s second largest beer company, about a “combination” of the two companies.
In an effort to better support its west coast craft brands, Pyramid and Portland Brewing, North American Breweries said it hired Robert Rentsch as its new general manager. In a press statement, NAB CEO Kris Sirchio said the position was created with the specific intent to build the company’s craft business in the Pacific Northwest.
Vermont’s Farrell Distributing has struck a deal with G.Housen Inc. to acquire its entire portfolio of beverage brands in Vermont. G.housen is based in Keene, N.H., and also operates a third distributorship in Massachusetts. Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed and the transaction is expected to close on October 30, the two companies said.
In an effort to cut costs amid declining sales, MillerCoors will close one of its eight U.S. brewing facilities, the company announced today. MillerCoors plans to close its Eden, North Carolina location in September 2016. A transition plan is still being finalized, but MillerCoors will “gradually” begin exiting the facility in early 2016, a company spokesman told Brewbound.
What feels like the worst kept secret in craft beer industry circles was finally revealed yesterday, as MillerCoors announced it would acquire a majority stake in fast growing San Diego craft brewery, Saint Archer Brewing. Financial terms were not disclosed, but a recent Wall Street Journal valuation estimate, which pegged craft brewery multiples at $1,000 per barrel, could mean Saint Archer fetched as much as $35 million
Another California-based craft brewer has sold. Tenth and Blake, the craft and import division of MillerCoors, today announced it would acquire a majority interest in San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewing Company. The transaction is expected to close in October 2015. Financial terms were not disclosed. Saint Archer launched in 2013 and has grown rapidly in its short few years in business. It expects to sell 35,000 barrels of beer in 2015.
Executives from the nation’s largest domestic and import beer companies convened on Capitol Hill today, taking part in a day-long meeting featuring presentations and panel discussions from industry leaders, legislators and lobbyists alike. Included on the agenda were discussions of industry wide tax reform (as outlined in the bipartisan Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act), FDA menu labeling disclosures and the Beer Institute’s newly established federal “Beer PAC.”
MillerCoors’ board of directors today named interim CEO Gavin Hattersley as its permanent leader. Hattersley — who came to the SABMIller/Molson Coors joint venture in July, following former CEO Tom Long’s departure from the company — had been serving as both the chief of MillerCoors and the chief financial officer of Molson Coors.
Lagunitas Brewing, one of the fastest-growing craft breweries in the U.S., today announced it would enter into a joint venture with Heineken International, the world’s third largest beer company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but sources familiar with craft deals, according to the company’s hometown paper, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, have said the blockbuster deal could value Lagunitas at $1 billion.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, via its Goose Island Beer Company outfit, today announced it will acquire a majority stake in Michigan’s Virtue Cider. Specific financial terms were not disclosed, but officials with both companies described the partnership as a joint venture, noting that Goose would become the “majority shareholder” in the cidery.
Less than one month after it announced the acquisition of four wholesalers in Colorado, Anheuser-Busch InBev today announced another set of distributor transactions in California. In a statement, Bob Tallett, A-B InBev’s vice president of business and wholesaler development, said the company has agreed to acquire a stake in the Oakland, Calif.-based Horizon Beverage Company. In a second transaction, A-B will repurchase its brand rights from M.E. Fox & Company Inc., a beer and non-alcoholic beverage distributor based in San Jose, Calif.
Anchor Brewing has once again broadened its partnership with the San Francisco Giants, introducing a new “limited-edition” collaboration brew: Orange Splash Lager. The new beer — paying homage to the AT&T Park’s notorious “splash hits” (home runs that land on the fly into “McCovey Cove,” located beyond the right field wall) — blends pale 2-row, Caramel and Patagonia malts with Apollo, Bravo and experimental hops for a refreshing, citrus-forward beverage, the company said.
It’s no secret that Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery has been on the hunt for a location to build an east coast brewing facility. A recent report from Charlottesville Tomorrow, a non-profit news organization covering land use and development in the Charlottesville, Va. area, confirms that the company is indeed considering Virginia. Deschutes president Michael LaLonde told the website that Albemarle County is “one of several” east coast sites the company is currently eyeing.
